Bozarth: Defense spending sucking us dry

As Congress struggles to find common ground on deficit reduction, we must ultimately face the debate on how to significantly reduce defense spending.

We cannot escape the reality that huge defense expenditures are a major cause of our growing deficit. There are two fundamental reasons why significant defense budget reduction does not enter into the debate.

The first is the climate of fear which makes it so politically dangerous to advocate for lower defense spending, that few in public office will do so. Decorated Vietnam veteran Max Cleland lost his Senate seat in 2002, in part because he was portrayed as not sufficiently hawkish in the post-9/11 world.

There are some exceptions, but almost everyone in national political life shuns the inconvenient truth. We cannot maintain current defense spending levels without significantly raising taxes.

The second, and more frightening reason military spending isn’t questioned, is the degree to which the defense industry sits at the heart of our economy. The deck is stacked politically.

Elected officials are expected to come out fighting whenever their share of the military pork becomes endangered.

Consider when Georgia’s slice of the military spending pie was threatened in recent years.

Whether it was keeping the line open at Lockheed in Marietta by dreaming up new ways to deploy C-130 cargo craft, or finding a new mission for Warner Robbins when the B-1 bomber wing departed or keeping the HQ base at Fort McPherson open for a few more years, there’s nothing like threatened military cutbacks to bring politicians of all stripes out fighting to retain these assets.

The defense industry spends hundreds of millions every year lobbying Congress. They also insure the pain of any cutbacks are felt by as many Americans as possible. A defense employee once told me that it was a stated objective of his company to insure that their supply chain touched every one of the 435 congressional districts.

Defense contracts provide many well-paying jobs. But if tax money is to be used in creating jobs, why these jobs, instead of investing in our own infrastructure? Our defense allocation goes far beyond what this country needs to protect our people. We are hooked on this government subsidy, and need to break the habit.

We’re buying hardware and ordinance that hopefully are never deployed, and if they are, become our own weapons of mass destruction, driving debt and carnage to frightening levels.

Service rivalries and redundant weapons systems inflate defense spending far beyond what is necessary to protect us. The CIA and independent sources say we spend between 4 and 5 percent of GDP on our military. Total investment goes beyond that if you include intelligence agencies, the war on drugs, sales to our allies and military foreign aid.

Other industrialized nations spend a much smaller share. (France and the United Kingdom under 3 percent, Germany and Japan around 1 percent of GDP)

However, nothing illustrates the super-sizing of our defense spending like comparing amounts spent. Data provided by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, shows the U.S. spent $687 billion on its military in 2010, six times higher than China, and 13 times Russia’s amount. Our expenditures dwarf the rest of the world, especially our potential adversaries. “Axis of evil” countries Iran and North Korea together spend less than 2 percent of what we do.

The stalemate in the super-committee may result in across-the-board cuts to the military. Whether that happens or not, Americans need to start challenging the long-established taboo against questioning defense spending. It’s sucking us dry and cannot be sustained.

Bill Bozarth, former director of Common Cause Georgia, is a member of the Georgia Peace and Justice Coalition.